Husband-and-wife
journalists Nathan Hodge and Sharon Weinberger tour the
secretive world of nuclear weaponry in this fascinating,
kaleidoscopic portrait of the new atomic era, from Los
Alamos to Iran—and everywhere in between.

Weapons of mass destruction may dominate the headlines, yet the public has little insight into current nuclear arsenals, plans for waging nuclear war, or even the purpose of deterrence. Concerned that rogue nations and terrorists are striving to acquire the atomic bomb, the United States and other nuclear-armed nations around the world are modernizing their weapons. The Cold War world of Dr. Strangelove has given way to a new and uncertain future of renegade weapons scientists, missing nuclear blueprints and atomic terror.

In A Nuclear Family Vacation, Hodge and Weinberger hit the open road to explore the world’s nuclear landscape. Along the way, they answer the questions most nuclear tourists don’t get to ask: Why are nuclear weapons still on hair-trigger alert? Is there such a thing as a suitcase nuke? Is Russia’s nuclear arsenal secure? Their itinerary takes them to top-secret locations, like Iran’s Esfahan Uranium Conversion Facility, the Semipalatinsk Test Site in Kazakhstan, the United States' Kwajalein military outpost in the Marshall Islands, and “Site R,” a heavily fortified bunker known as the "Underground Pentagon," rumored to be Vice President Cheney's “undisclosed location” of choice. Their atomic road trip reveals a unique perspective on the history of weaponry as well as the current state of affairs, as governments around the world face the nuclear question in the age of global terror.

Weaving together first-class travel writing and investigative journalism, Hodge and Weinberger unearth unknown—and oddly entertaining—stories about the nuclear world in this absorbing and engaging exploration of the world’s vast nuclear infrastructure and the international politics at play behind it.